Harbor Mountain (My View), A Retrospective Tale of Two Travellers Part 9A

Early in our visit to Sitka the girls drove us up Harbor Mountain (2400 feet).  Around 5 miles of  narrow winding road take you almost to the top, with glimpses of spectacular views on the way up, and small areas to pull to one side if you meet a car coming the other way.  In winter, Harbor Mountain is covered with snow but on the day we visited it was a mild sunny day.

The car park is not quite at the top, so hubby and our daughter decided to walk up to the top (the hard way with a scramble up a goat track, rather than walking up the walk trail!!  Nuts to that).  So K and I stayed down at car park level and watched them go.  Our daughter got about half way up and was a little freaked about coming back down again so K went on up to her and hubby kept going all the way to the top.

Then he disappeared and the girls got worried about bears or him falling over the other side of the mountain so they continued to climb while calling his name.  Needless to say, he didn't hear them until they were almost up the top, when he suddenly reappeared not realising he had caused a fuss and they all came down again.  Part B of this story will be his views from the top and some of the views on the way up as well.

Now while all the drama was unfolding I decided to walk up the real trail, I'm the smart one it seems!!  With my bodgy knee I knew I couldn't go too far, so I pottered around probably not walking more than about 500m in total before coming back to check on how the real walkers were fairing.

Harbor Mountain is all about the majestic distance-views, but for me it was all about the moss meadows, the meadows of bracken fern, the water droplets on leaves, the light and shadows and a find of mini fungi.  I actually think I loved my view the best, especially all the different and vibrant colours within the moss, the leaves and the big blue sky.  What do you think?

Hubby and daughter heading up the goat track.

Looking down the goat track, photo taken by hubby

A field of moss on a tree stump within the car park. This is what started me on the micro view photo shoot!!

My arty shot of the same moss field above

The proper trail along which all the following photos were taken.

Water droplets on leaves:

 

Fields of moss:

Fields of moss as far as the eye can see

Would love to see this little creek with more water running tumbling down, maybe next time we visit

This sort of reminds me of a bonsai tree

Micro Moss shots (loving all the different colours and textures):

Fields of bracken fern:

Fields of bracken fern

Teeny tiny fungi growing on the roots of a tree:

The start of the trail warns of Brown Bear and what to do to avoid them, what I was more worried about was the 3 'walkers' that appeared carrying rifles and wearing camouflage gear!!  Something this Aussie is not used to at all given our strict gun laws.  Oh then there was the big black dog that came bounding towards me barking his head off while his owners yelled at him to stop!!  Given that they recommend you leash your dogs on the trail, I'm wondering if they stopped to read the sign below!!

When we go back and my knee is all fixed, I'm hoping to walk up more of the trail and find even more treasures on the way.

Luckily I saw no bear, although the week after we were there a mother and cub were sighted near this very trail

Thanks for popping by xxxx